A contestant can play Secret "X" and Pass the Buck perfectly and win nothing!
...and make all wrong decisions in Pass the Buck, Let 'Em Roll, Stack the Deck and Hole in One, yet still win.
Issues I have with that point:
1) Considering that you win something as long as you don't pick LOSE EVERYTHING in Pass the Buck, even if you don't necessarily win the car, it seems to me that you aren't guaranteed a win if you make "all wrong decisions" because the possibility exists that you can make a right pick and then pick LOSE EVERYTHING twice and lose, doesn't it? That's really the only wrong decision.
2) Hole in One's a game based more on physical skill than anything. Remember, the pricing aspect plays second fiddle to the putting. You could play the game perfectly and miss the short putt.
I'm 100% with you re: the Pass the Buck scenario. If you make all correct decisions and get LE on the first two picks, you are guaranteed nothing less than $1000, but of course if you pick anything less than the car, even if it's all 3 $ amounts, you still lose the game. Someone else here may have made the argument of the $1000 PtB guarantee; I wasn't trying to make that implication.
You can lose Hole in One if you putt from the line closest to the Hole and miss, but you are still guaranteed the $500
if you get that far.
IIRC, Let 'Em Roll is the only current game where you are guaranteed to win something
from the onset. You could make all right or wrong pricing decisions but you will never walk away with less than $500. (You could also roll $7500, but it's still a loss if you don't get all 5 cars.) Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the only other PGs where you were always guaranteed to win something have all been retired: Mystery Price, Give or Keep, Finish Line, Double Digits and Trader Bob. (Grocery Game gave out grocery supplies in its first four playings.)
In Temptation, I never really considered the 4 smaller prizes "gifts" because you still have to make the decision whether to keep them or go for the car. Same with the $2000 on the two free cards in Spelling Bee. You don't get the prizes or the cash if you go all the way for the car but don't win it.
Of all the above mentioned games, Secret X is the only one where you have no chance of winning anything at all if you make all wrong pricing decisions.
